Wood track saved from the garbage dump

[VTECFOUR]

A friend's cousin was down-sizing and was going to dump his three laner if no one would take it. It would have been a shame to see this happen so I stepped up and found some space albeit temporary.





He designed and CNC routed this himself with three possible configurations, this being the smallest fitting a 7' x 11' area. It looks to be quite a technical drive with lots of corners with various radius, a short straightaway and a squeeze section.





I've connected the five track pieces and will be fabricating and soldering in jumper cables from underneath.

Should be running soon.

Dan

[munter]

Looks nice.
I would probably get rid of the wiggly squeeze and just have a straight.
No squeezes ever again for me.

[bigman]

[RichD]

I'm glad that the track did not end up in the dump. In my opinion routed tracks should be made so they can be taken apart and moved fairly easily. That way if you need to move or just get out of the hobby someone can have a nice track.
If you are running by yourself the squeezes will not be a factor. Kids and squeezes do not play well together. Most of the Shoreline Model Raceways tracks have a single squeeze. One of our first wood tracks had a number of random squeezes, it was a three lane track and just two lanes would squeeze together in one spot while a different two lanes would squeeze in another place. The track has been moved several times, originally it was taped, now it is braided, but the configuration is still the same except that a hump was added in one straightaway.

[Lou E]

Looks like a fun track, but then again aren’t they all? :D

Happy to see it saved and continue to be enjoyed.

[loosewheel]

I'm with Munter, get rid of the fussy bit and give cars a chance to stretch their legs.

[Audi1]

Nice save! You'll have a good time with that track.

Allan

[Broman62]

Fantastic save V4...looks to be in excellent shape!!!

[chappyman66]

Great save! Agree about the straight, but that's going to be a fun track.

[Z-carfan]

Great save Vtech, glad you found it a home.

[VTECFOUR]

Had to vacate the workspace and dismantle.



Most the messy work's done at least.

Have just enough room in my apartment to temporarily set up for proxy track hosting once in awhile.

Dan

[VTECFOUR]

Managed to set up the track in my apartment sitting on a dining table and make shift 2 x 4 support structures.



Has a nice flow, but unfortunately only middle lane is running. I've got pesky hard-to-detect electrical shorts in the inner and outer lanes that are causing severe voltage drops from the main power tap. Seems to be the risk of getting an old track going that's not been used much and partially been in storage.

I think a complete re-tape would be the remedy as there are a lot of patches.

That'll be in the future, so this goes into dry storage in a few days.

Dan

[Z-carfan]

You are probably right on about the re tape, it would be the quickest way to solve the issue.

Hope you get to put that up in a more permanent space soon, looks like a nice track.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

From my experience, you have two way s to deal with this:

One, go around the track and "leap frog" the leads on you meter, set to "continuity". You'll find the faults in minutes. Its probably something so obvious you will feel blind for not seeing it. To repair, simply lay tape across the fault, then take a knife point or ice pick and poke a lot of holes in the overlay. Perfect contact, and if you burnish the edges well, you may forget the patches are there.

Two, go around the lanes with a razor knife and make a slight cut beside the tape edges. If you have to strip the tape (and that's probably unnecessary), making these cuts will assure you that you won't flake the track paint as you pull the tape off.

[Impulse-ive]

If you're considering re-taping you could route it to a braid set up. It would make it easier to have the braid connect in the seams. just an idea.